In eight days, I’ll be in Haiti as part of the Ridgecrest Baptist Church mission team which is partnered with Haiti Outreach Ministries. HOM focuses its work through four separate church/school campuses in the Port Au Prince area, under the supervision of Pastor Leon D’Orleans. Our mission team will serve through construction, electrical upgrade, and painting projects.

I’m thrilled to go again, for lots of reasons, but there are two primary ones!

This is the second year Al and I have sponsored a primary child in one of the schools. In Haiti the need is for sponsorship is great, because the country is too poor to provide public education. Through sponsorship, Pierre will be educated, fed one meal a day, and taught about Jesus.

Our child’s name is Pierre Mischael Lorisme. He is 5 years old and a K-1 student at Repatriote School. As you can see, he looks a bit dazed in his picture!

He’s quite the artist–the valentine he made shows he can color pretty well in the lines . . . .

And his end-of-the-year report card from June 2012 shows he’s an average student in most categories, but especially strong in following directions. Keep on learning, Pierre!

I had so much fun picking out the items I will give to Pierre. His lime-green-and-black backpack contains all the usual stuff–underwear/socks/shoes, toiletries, school supplies, a few toys and candy. When we get to the Haitian grocery store, I’ll be sure to buy his family a bag of rice and a bag of dried beans to tuck inside.

My ladies’ Sunday School class, the Daughters of the King, also sponsors an HOM child. Her name is Breeth Chinaida Jhoolycka Damassee. That’s a big name for such a little thing! She’s only 4 years old and in the Pre-K class at Cite Soleil school.

Her backpack contents are below. I had a blast packing her backpack as well!

One of my fellow DOTK’s is also part of the mission team — Marilyn Thayer. She and I can’t wait to see Breeth and Pierre in person, see their faces light up. You can be sure we’ll take plenty of pictures!

Would you also consider sponsoring a needy child to go to school? Haiti Outreach Ministries always has a backlog of children who need sponsors. . . PRAY and see if the Lord would like you to be involved in this very worthwhile ministry. . . you can easily change a child’s life for as little as $360.00 a year! (www.haitioutreachministries.org)

We covet your prayers while on our mission trip. Please pray for the 24-member team during our week’s stay, March 28th through April 4th. Pray for God’s presence to fill us as we serve the people of Haiti and for our team’s continued safety and health.

“But Jesus called them unto him, and said , Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. ” Luke 18:16

This week at Ladies First Tuesday at Ridgecrest Baptist Church, several of our ladies presented a Christian mentoring skit. In the introduction, I proposed an observation about Christian mentoring or discipling:

Mentoring is mirroring the grace God’s given you to another believer.

As the writer of Hebrews instructs, we’re to” spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24). The red scarf you see–is God’s grace which is passed to others. We must be intentional about mirroring this grace!

Grace may take different forms along the way. No one’s faith is cookie-cutter to another’s–our relationships to an infinitely creative God will always be individually tailored to each of His children.

As we take the red scarf, pass it along, then say goodbye to that person (but not forever, knowing we will meet up again in heaven someday!!), God puts that believer in the path of another to make a lasting difference in her life. This next believer hears and sees the translated Grace of Christ and can’t help but be shaped by it in return. She then passes Grace along. . . and Grace is passed. . . and so on and so on. A never-ending blessing of generations. . .

Has God called you to Christian mentoring? If your church doesn’t do formal mentoring, would you consider praying for God to place another woman in your path, one to whom you can mirror God’s grace?

Or someone perhaps you yourself can learn from?

This young man, Caleb Breakey, has a heart for those young people in our church who are disillusioned with the church, the Bride of Christ, and leaving it in droves.

You may be saying, But what can I do?

You can do your part, as God leads you. As the video above states, Caleb has written a book and has a planned video project aimed at the group of young people aged 20-30, called the Millennials. This film will lovingly and strongly exhort them to love Jesus and STAY IN THE CHURCH. He plans to show it nationwide, far and near, wherever he can get a young audience to watch it.

All three of my children fall in the Millennial age category. One child, in particular, doesn’t darken the door of the church that often because he sees the institution as “old-fashioned” and even worse, “irrelevant” to him. He doesn’t see the inherent danger of trying to go it alone. Him, plus thousands, millions of other young believers in Christ, don’t get it.

Yes, this is a fundraiser for Caleb’s project. And yes, I don’t usually make appeals like this.

But I listened, really listened, to this young man, and I have to say, my heart was touched.

Let’s encourage the young people to stay within in the flock. To stay, and make the church all she can be, through God’s grace.

Won’t you please contribute, even a little bit? Click on the link below.

Caleb Breakey is the author of two forthcoming books with Harvest House Publishers, and is currently raising pledges to create a DVD Series about “Following Jesus Without Leaving the Church.” If you are interested in his project, please check out his Kickstarter.com page below. As of this posting, he’s raised $7,659 of the needed $9,000 to create the DVD Series.